Analysis

1. Rejection of hypothesis:
From the findings of our research, the hypothesis that-- sexual minorities are more likely to be accepted by society in countries with higher level of development-- is rejected. Only Argentina with high level of development and Djibouti with low development level to a large extent can prove the validity of our hypothesis.The former safeguards civil rights and equal opportunity of the sexual minorities; while the latter discriminates and deprives rights of the sexual minorities. However, the findings of the rest countries, including Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Belarus, show that more rights guaranteed for sexual minorities are not necessarily in places with high or intermediated development of the country. On the contrary, civil rights of sexual minorities are safeguarded by law and sexual minorities are more socially accepted in places with relatively lower level of development such as Nepal. Given only two countries with situations support the validity of our hypothesis, the argument-- the higher the level of development, the greater the social acceptance-- is proven weak.

2. Laws and government to a certain extent as an important factor:
A correlation between laws and government and social acceptance to LGBT can be seen in our research. If laws and government are more open to LGBT, the society is more likely to accept LGBT. At the same time, if the society is less negative towards LGBT, there are more possibilities for further LGBT development promoted by the government with fewer pressures through legislation. In Bolivia, the government is adopting more open attitudes towards LGBT legislation. It results in more social organizations and movements for the increase in LGBT rights. Although some deep-rooted negative attitudes still exist, at least the society is being influenced step-by-step through legislations and social organizations and movements.

In Hong Kong, Belarus and Sri Lanka, lack of supports from the laws and government sometimes hinder the development of LGBT rights. In Belarus and Hong Kong, same sex activities are only decriminalized meaning legal recognition is not yet confirmed. In Sri Lanka, although the legislation is less likely to be enforced, homosexuality is still criminalized. It can cause limited LGBT rights development. First, LGBT groups are more likely to face discrimination since most of the time these governments do not include LGBT in anti-discrimination legislation. Second, legislation can be even discriminative against LGBT, like that of Sri Lanka. As the result, LGBT groups face different difficulties in rights being suppressed, for example, the equality of employment is not guaranteed since discrimination in employment is not a crime.

More backward legislation especially influences civil liberty, resulting in further limitations on LGBT rights. In both Belarus, Sri Lanka and Djibouti, there is censorship for press. Not only will the media avoid releasing any information which is supportive to the promotion of LGBT, but media is also used as a tool that negative information which shapes more opposing social attitudes towards LGBT is more likely to release. Besides, freedom of speech is much limited in these three countries. Therefore, the chances for people from LGBT groups to expose their LGBT identity are much fewer than those in places where freedom of speech is available.

3.The influence of civil libertyDespite the importance of civil liberty mentioned in the previous paragraph, the influence of civil liberty sometimes has its own limitations. In Hong Kong, safeguard civil liberty enables different discussions in the society. In recent LGBT movement, even some artists admit their LGBT identity and there was a demonstration to urge the government for fruther legislation. In fact, there has been voices for futher protections for LGBT for a period of time. However, the progress resulted by the government is still slow and limited that anti-discrimination legislation for LGBT is still being argued. Both supporting and opposing groups continue their debate based on their large extent of freedom and civil liberty.

4. Religion to a certain extent as an important factor:

According to our definition of development, freedom which brings about betterment of people’s life should be taken into consideration as a dimension of development. In our research, the conflicts between different freedoms are discovered. Religion often holds strong negative attitudes towards LGBT. The most prominent two religions that are associated with LGBT are Catholicism and Islam. The influence of Catholicism is strong in Hong Kong, Belarus and Bolivia. In general, Catholicism thinks LGBT is not consistent with what human beings should be as instructed by God and is regarded as sins. In Hong Kong, it is discovered that sometimes the government even makes claims based on religious views of opposing homosexuality. However, Argentina is an exceptional case in this perspective, since it is a heavily Roman Catholic country. It can be explained that Catholicism is less penetrating into people life in Argentina then in other places, since Catholics only practice some of the Catholic practices.

Although we only have one Islamic country in our research, the Islamic influence seems to play an important role also. Since there is little and limited information of LGBT in Djibouti, articles revealing LGBT Muslims in other parts of the world are also examined. In general, Islam is also homophobia. Serious penalties will be implemented if the identity of LGBT are exposed in public.

(Source: Maps of World 2012)

Although exceptional cases are found in Buddhism and Hinduism, religion is still said to be a strong factor.
Even though Buddhism is influential in Thailand, it is less influential in Sri Lanka. It is because Sri Lanka is
subjected to colonization and inherited its discriminative laws against homosexuality while Thailand did not.
However, when the distribution of religion in the world is examined, the majority of the worlds are Chritianity
and Islam.

According to our definition of development, freedom which brings about betterment of people’s life should be
taken into consideration as a dimension of development. In our research, the conflicts between different freedoms
are discovered. Hong Kong is a prominent example in this result. Hong Kong has been seen as a place with a
relatively high level of civil liberty, and Hong Kong people can enjoy religious freedom. When development is
examined in terms of this freedom, it seems that Hong Kong is at a high level of development. However, LGBT
is often opposited by religious claims in Hong Kong. Therefore, it comes to a question: even if we only consider
freedom as a dimension of development, sometimes it is hard to decide if it's developed. Also, it is also doubted
that if religious freedom partly results in opposition towards LGBT, weakening the freedom of LGBT.